The present invention relates to inductive magnetic transducers, which may for example be employed in information storage systems or measurement and testing systems.
Inductive heads used for writing and/or reading magnetic information on storage media such as a disk or tape typically include electrically conductive coil windings encircled by a magnetic core including first and second pole layers. Portions of the pole layers adjacent the media are termed pole tips. The magnetic core is interrupted by a submicron nonmagnetic gap disposed between the pole tips to divert magnetic flux to the media during writing. To write to the media electric current is flowed through the coil, which produces magnetic flux in the core encircling the coil windings, the magnetic flux fringing across the nonmagnetic gap adjacent to the media so as to write bits of magnetic field information in tracks on the media.
The first pole layer may also serve as a magnetic shield layer for a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor that has been formed prior to the pole layers, the combined MR and inductive transducers termed a merged or piggyback head. Typically the first pole layer is substantially flat and the second pole layer is curved, as a part of the second pole layer is formed over the coil windings and insulation disposed between the pole layers, while another part nearly adjoins the first pole layer adjacent the gap. The second pole layer may also diverge from a flat plane by curving to meet the first pole layer in a region distal to the media-facing surface, sometimes termed the back gap region, although typically a nonmagnetic gap in the core does not exist at this location.
The curvature of the second pole layer from planar affects the performance of the head. An important parameter of the head is the throat height, which is the distance from the media-facing surface to where the first and second pole layers begin to diverge and become separated by more than the submicron nonmagnetic gap. Because less magnetic flux crosses the gap as the pole layers are further separated, a short throat height is desirable in obtaining a fringing field for writing to the media that is a significant fraction of the total flux crossing the gap.
In addition to the second pole layer being curved from planar, one or both pole layers may also have a tapered width in the pole tip area, to funnel flux through the pole tips. A place where the second pole layer begins to widen is sometimes termed a nose or flare point. The distance to the flare point from the media-facing surface, sometimes called the nose length, also affects the magnitude of the magnetic field produced to write information on the recording medium, due to decay of the magnetic flux as it travels down the length of the narrow second pole tip. Thus, shortening the distance of the flare point from the media-facing surface would also increase the flux reaching the recording media.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned design parameters require a tradeoff in the fabrication of the second pole tip. The second pole tip should be narrow and well-defined in order to produce narrow and well-defined written tracks on the rotating disk, but the slope of the second pole layer at the end of the throat height makes photolithography difficult. The second pole layer can be formed in two pieces to better define the pole tip; a flat pole tip layer and a curved yoke layer that are connected or stitched together. This solution, however, can actually require the throat height to be extended in order to have a sufficient stitched area for flux transfer between the second pole tip and the yoke. High-resolution photolithography, such as I-line or deep ultra violet (DUV) photolithography, may be useful for reducing feature sizes but has a more limited depth of focus that may exacerbate the problem of focusing on the sloped pole layer adjacent the throat.
In addition, several methods are known to form self-aligned pole tips. In one method, an ion beam etch (IBE) or other highly anisotropic process removes a portion of the second pole layer not protected by a mask, thereby creating the second pole tip, with the etching continued to similarly remove a portion of the first pole tip not covered by the second pole tip. The width of the pole tip layers are therefore matched, and walls of the pole tips are aligned, but the problem of accurately defining the second pole tip by photolithography for a short throat height remains. Other proposals include forming an electrically conductive gap layer, so that the second pole tip can be electroplated atop the first. A second pole tip directly plated on a conductive gap layer may have increased eddy currents that counteract high-frequency operation, however, and so has not been widely employed.
High-frequency operation may also be counteracted by self-inductance of the coil that is used to drive the magnetic flux. The number of coil turns may be reduced to reduce the self-inductance, but this generally results in reduced electromotive force. Larger coil cross-sections may be employed, but at high frequencies a skin effect may arise that limits electric current to the surface of the coil cross-sections. Other coil configurations can be employed but typically involve manufacturing difficulties.
FIG. 1 is a cutaway cross-sectional representation of an information storage system 20 that is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/999,694, filed Oct. 24, 2001, which is owned by the assignee of the current application and is incorporated by reference herein. A magnetic head similar to that shown in FIG. 1 has been commercially available for at least one year prior to the filing of the present application. A portion of an electromagnetic head including a merged inductive and MR transducer 22 is depicted in close proximity to a relatively moving media such as a spinning disk 25. The transducer 22 has been formed in a plurality of adjoining solid layers on a wafer substrate 28 that may remain affixed to the transducer 22. A media-facing surface 33 of the solid body that includes the transducer 22 may be formed with a desired relief for fluid and solid interaction with the disk 25, and the body may be termed a head or slider.
The disk 25 may be conventional and includes a self-supporting substrate 35, an underlayer 34, a media layer 37 and a protective overcoat 39. The disk 25 is spinning in a direction indicated by arrow 31 and has a surface 32 adjacent the media-facing surface 33 of the head.
Atop the slider substrate 28 a first low-coercivity, high-permeability or “soft magnetic” shield layer 30 has been formed, for example of Permalloy (Ni0.8Fe0.2) either directly or atop a seed layer, not shown. A first layer of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material has been formed on the shield layer, followed by a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor 44. The MR sensor can be any sensor that utilizes a change in resistance associated with a change in magnetic field to sense that field, which may be measured as a change in current or voltage across the sensor, including anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensors, spin-valve (SV) sensors, spin-dependent tunneling (SDT) sensors, giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors and colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) sensors.
A second layer of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material has been formed between the MR sensor and a second soft magnetic shield layer, which also serves as a first pole layer 46 in this example of a merged head. The first and second layers of nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material are indicated together as region 40. The MR sensor 44 may be electrically connected to the shield layers 30 and 46 in some embodiments, such as spin-dependent tunneling sensors.
A first electrically conductive coil layer 52 has first coil sections 55 that are separated from the first pole layer 46 by additional nonmagnetic, electrically insulating material 45. A second electrically conductive coil layer 57 has second coil sections 59 that are separated from the first coil sections 55 by material 45, but may be connected to first coil layer 52 in an interconnect not shown in this cross-section. For example, first coil layer 52 may spiral in a clockwise direction and second coil layer 57 may spiral in a counterclockwise direction with the center sections of the coils interconnected, so that current in coil sections 55 is parallel to current in coil sections 59. Second coil sections 59 are isolated from a second soft magnetic pole layer 60, the second pole layer coupled to the first pole layer 46 by a soft magnetic stud 62. Additional coil layers may also be formed. A protective coating 80 is formed on a trailing edge 82 of the body, while another protective coating 88 is formed on the media-facing surface 33.
Although the above-described magnetic head has been successfully employed, several issues remain. The fabrication of the dual coil layers can be complicated and time consuming. The photoresist that remains between the coil sections has a greater coefficient of thermal expansion than surrounding materials, and tends to enlarge due to resistive heating by the coils, which can cause pole tip protrusion. Also, the leading pedestal can sometimes magnetize the media to the sides of the desired track.